UPDATE FEBRUARY 5! Last night Mark Levin weighed in – -“Mark takes on the Republican Establishment and the likes of Karl Rove and others who are actively trying to shut down conservative politicians and conservative groups. The Establishment sees the people and the Tea Party movement as a threat to their power and want to stop it any way they can. Not only are we in a political battle with President Obama, but now we have to fight within the Republican Party because they are losing their way.” Click here.

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Last Saturday’s New York Times article by Jeff Zeleny — “Top Donors to Republicans Seek More Say in Senate Races” — reported –

“COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — The biggest donors in the Republican Party are financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party’s efforts to win control of the Senate.” [Note how conservatives are associated with ‘far-right,’ the Tea Party is linked to ‘enthusiasts,’ and the Iowa dateline — leading to the story’s political target: national immigration-enforcement voice and Iowa Representative Steve King. -ed]

It is interesting though. The people who brought us No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, TARP, the GM bailout, Harriet Miers, etc., etc., etc. are really hacked off that people have been rejecting them. In 2012, about the only successful Republican candidates were the ones who directly rejected the legacy of these people.”

Added Erickson —

“Weeding out candidates will not be the problem. The problem will come when conservatives do rally and Karl Rove disagrees. In calling his group the ‘Conservative Victory Project’ he intends to lend a veneer of conservative credibility to candidates who may not be — in the same way the Bush Presidency tried to create ‘big government conservatism.’”(Highlighting Forum’s.)

Daniel Horowitz (Madison Project) also shot back in his “The Snakes in the GOP Grass” —

“We are looking for one party that is willing to fight for the restoration of our Republic, not jettison every tenet of our Constitution under the false allurement of electoral success. One by one, people like Karl Rove seek to crush another sacred belief of the conservative base. All social issues? Gone. Enforcement before amnesty? No way. Stay strong on taxes? Forget about it. Fight Obamacare? That’s a done deal.Folks, we must win back the soul of the Republican Party before we can effect any positive change.” (Highlighting Forum’s.)

Last month, Scott Rasmussen spotlighted this effort of the Republican wing of the Big Government Party in his “Republican Establishment Declares War on GOP Voters” —

“So, according to Politico, the Washington team is gearing up a new effort to protect incumbents and limit the ability of Republican voters to successfully challenge establishment candidates.

That makes sense to those whose sole goal is winning a majority in Congress rather than changing the course of government policy. Seen from the outside, though, it sounds like the professional politicians are saying that the only way to win is to pick more candidates like the insiders. Hearing that message, the reaction of many Republican and conservative voters is, ‘Why bother?’ That’s why more than two-thirds of Republican voters believe GOP officials in Washington have lost touch with the party’s base.” (Highlighting Forum’s.)

And it’s not just GOP officials in Washington, D. C.

The Maryland GOP is shamed by its failure to mobilize voters to reject two measures – legalizing same-sex marriage and allowing in-state tuition for illegals — which were successfully and after great effort referred to that state’s voters last November. The GOP support for rejecting these laws in the general election was nearly invisible. But the number of Maryland voters rejecting the two measures exceeded statewide support for governor Romney in November (click here). Getting behind traditional marriage and strict immigration-control would have made the Maryland GOP more “inclusive” – in the conservative sense — by reaching working class and traditional-values voters of all colors.

The Republican governor of Virginia is — and represents – the bigger-government wing (click here and scroll down) of his party. As we noted, Ron Utt goes to the heart of the matter in his — “Governor McDonnell’s Seppuku Transportation Plan” (BearingDrift). Author and longtime Heritage expert Utt declared–

“Sadly, the Governor’s new views on transportation are not unique, nor are they materially different from those of Maryland’s Governor Martin O’Malley, President Barrack Obama, the Sierra Club, the Piedmont Environmental Council, Smart Growth America, and a host of other progressive entities and persons. While there is not the time or space here to get into the flaws in the many individual components of this plan, one can’t help but be impressed by the Governor’s and the Attorney General’s apparent breathtaking turnaround on the Silver Line (Dulles Rail), one of the largest and costliest real estate deals on the East Coast, which — by the sponsor’s own admission to U.S. DOT — will have no lasting impact on congestion or air quality. Nonetheless, the Governor’s proposed tax increases will fund a $300 million grant to Dulles Rail, provided that ‘the reforms identified by the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General are implemented.’ In human speak what the governor is saying is that this funding will be withheld until a corrupt and mismanaged, multi-billion dollar wasteful boondoggle is reformed into just a multi-billion dollar, wasteful boondoggle.” (Highlighting Forum’s.)

“One by one, people like Karl Rove seek to crush another sacred belief of the conservative base. All social issues? Gone. Enforcement before amnesty? No way. Stay strong on taxes? Forget about it. Fight Obamacare? That’s a done deal.”

Horowitz also reported —

“As I solicit feedback from grassroots Republicans throughout the country in preparation for the 2014 elections, I’m struck by the deep sense of pain and disquiet that has penetrated the very core of our base.”

At the state and county levels, party gatherings should be addressing these Rove vs. Conservative Base choices — and this grassroots pain and disquiet.

Even local Party organs ignore this profound conflict, perhaps fearing that to raise the issue would bring state and national apparatchiks and, even more dangerous, the many content-flexible GOP candidates down on their heads.

Unless they do so, however, there will be little basis to judge GOP candidates and, in pollster Rasmussen’s words (see larger quote above) —

“… the reaction of many Republican and conservative voters [would be], ‘Why bother?’”

“Right-of-center parties will once in a while be in office, but never in power, merely presiding over vast left-wing bureaucracies that cruise on regardless. Republicans seem to have difficulty grasping this basic dynamic.” (Highlighting Forum’s.)

The Rove-backed Conservative Victory Project may not win any general elections for Republican Senate candidates. But if the Romney primary campaign is any precursor, the Project — claiming it won’t be ‘squeamish’ — will do the Left’s work by bankrolling media damage to conservative primary candidates. And will this anti-conservative Project extend their reach to House primaries?